What are you doing on Patrimoine Sunday...

Here is a link to what is on in the Loire Valley

World travellers stopping in at Le Grand-Pressigny

The lovely courtyard at 'Chez Grand Ma'

Said goodbye yesterday to our Australian guests who loved Le Grand-Pressigny especially the restaurants...they used all three! We enjoy exposing world travellers to our beautiful part of France. After a changeover we welcomed a charming American couple who are on a mission to find a home for themselves here...exciting times!

The welcoming 'Chez L'

'La Savoie Villars' dining room

Our Australian guests comments:

14/09/18

Thank you Jim & Pauline for a wonderful stay at 'Les Balcons', gracious hosts providing  lots of information...great stay!

Lyn & Carrick,

Rhonda & Robert,

Australia

Something else for the weekend of 'Journees du Patrimoine'

Did you know that this weekend for 'Journees du Patrimoine' the chateau at Azay-le-Rideau is FREE to visit? So if you have not made this visit, now is the time to do it!

You can find other offers here

Something for the weekend - brocantes Sunday 16th September

Brocantes / vide greniers Sunday 16^th  Septenber

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

Angles-sur-l'Anglin   Vide-greniers **

Artsnnes-sur-Ingre  Vide-greniers ***

Azay-le-Rideau   Retro-Rete du Musee Maurice Dufresne

Charentilly  Vide-greniers **

Chatellerault  Lac de la foret Vide-greniers ?

Chatellerault  Stade de loisirs des minimes Vide-greniers ?

Chinon   Monthly Brocante

Cormery  Brocante / Vide-greniers *****

Jour-le-Tours  Vide-greniers ***

Montlouis-sur-Loire  Vide-greniers ***

Saint-Flovier  Brocante / Vide-greniers ?

Saint-Pierre-des-Corps  Vide-greniers ?

Scorbe-Clairvaux  Vide-greniers ?

Tours Alee Bauchant  Vide-greniers *

Vouvray  Vide-greniers ?

Y'Zer after the event...

So your town,Yzeures-sur-Creuse, has its annual 'Foire de Septembre' and as a bar owner what do you do?, you stay closed until 5.30pm on what is arguably one of the busiest days of the year! It may be it was not possible for reasons outwith their control but it never ceases to amaze us how many times we visit places on days like these and find bars and restaurants closed! It was good to see the English run 'Interior Affairs' was open exceptionally.

Dead-end streets...

When we attended the 'Foire de Septembre' at Yzeures-sur-Creuse on Sunday we were subject to diversions due to the cycle race using much of the main thoroughfares - the centre of town was 'controlled' by this very amiable larger than life gent.

It was,certainly in my case, difficult to avoid the actual parts of the road being used for the race. With the streets lined (slight over statement here) with people I just politely waved as if we were part of the entourage! When we had our fill of the festivities and tried to leave the village I thought I'd try and cut over the town using the cemetery road but as I should have guessed it was a dead end.

Even out into the countryside, with barriers across roads we still managed to find the route and at one stage we were trailing behind the straggler and his motorcyclist companion - at you can imagine not a very fast pace. Another attempt at exiting the route was squeezing past a man on a quad guarding a fenced off road only to find...guess what it was a dead-end, don't know why he thought we would want to go there!

A day to ourselves...well almost!

Pauline and I headed over to the 'Foire de Septembre' at Yzeures-sur-Creuse to see what was on offer and happy to report that it had everything its publicity advertised, if in a small scale. There was a 'marche gourmand' and music...

exhibitions...

brocante...

and a cycle race.

We met up with friends who had had an eventful morning with three brocante visits under their belts...that's dedication! A pleasant afternoon but duty called...well actually our guests at 'Les Balcons' who had a flat tyre and were looking for assistance...so it was over to Le Grand-Pressigny to see how we could help. 

Rewarded for our efforts...

Last nights sunset here in Southern Touraine

Greeted two new sets of guests yesterday from UK and Australia, getting both the 'Old Walnut Mill' and 'Les Balcons' ready was hard work but when we get comments (albeit we think, too generous) like the one below it reassures us that we are doing a good job!

7th September 2018

Dear Pauline & Jim what can I say that hasn't been said already? The Old Walnut Mill is fabulous! Barrou is quaint with all the facilities we have needed. The local people are friendly but most of all the friendship and help of you two has been wonderful! The emails that Jim sends with suggested highlights were most helpful and directed us to some of the highs-spots of our holiday.

All in all a splendid gite run by two splendid people . Many thanks again!

Jean  & Ian Thompson,

Kath & Barry Ashurst,

Sutton Coldfield,

UK

Something else for the weekend at Yzeures-sur-Creuse

Something else for the weekend...a bit of Cosi fan tutte

Something for the weekend - brocantes Saturday 8th / Sunday 9th September

Brocantes / vide greniers Saturday 8^th September

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

Brehement  Brocante / Vide-greniers ?

La Celle-Saint-Avant  Vide-greniers ***

Tours, Place Rabelais Vide-greniers ?

Brocantes / vide greniers Sunday 9^th  Septenber

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

Azay-le-Rideau  Brocante / Vide-greniers **

Beaulieu-les-Loches  Brocante   *

Blere  Vide-greniers **

Chinon  Vide-greniers ?

Cinais  Vide-greniers **

Continvoir  Vide-greniers ?

Descartes  Vide-greniers **

Drache  Vide-greniers *

Jaulnay  Vide-greniers **

La Membrolle-sur-Choisille  Vide-greniers ***

La Riche  Vide-greniers **

La Ville-aux-Dames  Vide-greniers *****

Monts  Vide-greniers **

Notr-Dame-d’Oe  Vide-greniers **

Parcay-sur-Vienne  Vide-greniers **

Saint-Nicolas-des-Motets  Vide-greniers **

Semblancay  Brocante *****

Yzeures-sur-Creuse  Brocante ?

Illuminating evening.

Last week some French friends were kind enough to invite us to their Pendaison de crémaillère (house warming) party which was an excellent evening with a great mix of people in very pleasant surroundings. Can you guess which company our host used to work for?

Long legs, power napping and bears in the wood!

Images from Sunday's brocante - can only think US military must have had to have had long legs for this bicycle

This bed seemed ideal for a power nap.



What do bears do in the wood? they meet up with friends of course

After a Saturday of two changeovers what do we do?

On Saturday we welcomed new guests to the 'Old Walnut Mill' and 'Le Bourg' and although we had had a few extra days to get 'Le Bourg' ready it was still a tiring day, so what did we do afterwards? we started to load up the trailer for the local (La Guerche) brocante on Sunday.

Then it was up at 'dark o'clock' to rendezvous with friends John & Maureen to set up our stalls in the Chateau grounds. After ten hours under a hot sun and having accrued the princely sum of 60 euros, we had to ask ourselves was it worth it? Well actually in spite of us being a little drained it was fun meeting friends old and new and acquainting ourselves with more of our neighbours here in La Guerche. It was not however much fun loading most of our 'stuff' back in the trailer!

Loire valley church on Sunday - Sainte-Chapelle at Champigny sur Veude

Sainte-Chapelle at Champigny sur Veude near Richelieu is modelled on the Royal Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.

You can read more here

Chenonceau - the 'must see' chateau of the Loire Valley

Chateau de Chenonceau was part of the Loire Valley experience of one of our guests at 'Les Balcons' and he was able to capture it in all its splendour,

Something for the weekend - brocantes Saturday 1st / Sunday 2nd September

Brocantes / vide greniers Saturday 1st Septenber

* Up to 50 stalls ** 50 to 100 stalls *** 100 to 200 stalls ****More than 200 stalls    ? Unknown

Chatellerault  Lac de la foret Vide-greniers ***

Oyre  Vide-greniers ***

Brocantes / vide greniers Sunday 2^nd Septenber

Azay-sur-Indre  Brocante / Vide-greniers **

Chateau-la-Valliere  Brocante   **

Chateau-Renault  Brocante ?

Descartes  Vide-greniers ?

Huismes  Vide-greniers  ?

Larcy  Vide-greniers ****

La Guerche   Brocante in chateau park ?

Saint-Paterne-Racan   Brocante vide-greniers ?

Saint-Germain-sur-Vide-greniers ?

Tours, Place de la Resistance Vide-greniers *****

End of the line...

Sadly, after 20 years together my trusty old friend and I have had to part company. The now even more stringent 'contrôle technique' has this year proven to be too big a challenge with a fairly long list of problems which, for us simple country folks, were too expensive to contemplate repairing. My French neighbour did the last drive with me to the breaker's yard where we left her,still looking good externally, to await her fate...sad day!

Summer sunset

Captured this recently while enjoying a pleasant evening above Le Petit-Pressigny

Yesterday's brocante at Chaumussay

This year's annual brocante yesterday at Chaumussay got us away from working on what was a lovely morning but offered up no 'treasure'.

It was a quieter than normal affair with nothing very illuminating although this sign had potential!